CVE-2012-2120

low

Published 2012-05-18 · Modified 2026-04-29

CVSS v3

—

CVSS v2

3.3

VIR risk

3.3

Description

latex2man in texlive-extra-utils 2011.20120322, and possibly other versions or packages, when used with the H or T option, allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a temporary file.

Predictions

Exploit likelihood

20%

Patch ETA

—

Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.

Mitigations

vendor Authored 2026-05-27

Vendor advisory: debian — https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2012-2120

OS impact

OS	Version	Status	Fixed in
debian	bookworm	fixed	`2012.20130315-1`
debian	bullseye	fixed	`2012.20130315-1`
debian	forky	fixed	`2012.20130315-1`
debian	sid	fixed	`2012.20130315-1`
debian	trixie	fixed	`2012.20130315-1`

Application impact

Vendor	Product	Versions	Fixed
debian	texlive-extra-utils	`2011.20120322`

References

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=668779
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/04/19/12
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/04/19/15
https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2012-2120

CWEs

CWE-264

Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.